


The Stranger on the Corner

by random_pairings_50113



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe, James Potter Lives, Prompt Fill
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-08
Updated: 2017-03-07
Packaged: 2018-09-30 18:35:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,774
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10169276
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/random_pairings_50113/pseuds/random_pairings_50113
Summary: Harry Potter passes the same, oddly-dressed stranger every morning and every night, sat on the same corner of the same street. When he gets involved in Harry's life, it leads to the revelation of who exactly Harry's parents were - and where one of them is now.(based on a tumblr prompt)





	

**Author's Note:**

> yo hello this was based on a prompt i read on writing-prompt-s.tumblr.com - "Harry Potter where Harry;s dad survived but is left emotionally destroyed by Voldemort's attack" and even though James Potter isn't in this part, he might pop up if I ever get around to writing a second part lol
> 
> here's the actual link for the actual prompt list:   
> http://writing-prompt-s.tumblr.com/post/158110813295/100-harry-potter-prompts-part-1
> 
> (kill me i'm so tired)

There’s a homeless man that Harry passes every morning on his walk to school. Or, he assumes he’s homeless; his hair is greasy and long, as though it’s never been washed or cut, his clothes are outdated and full of muck, and his face is tired and gaunt constantly. He sits on the same corner of the same road every morning, in a large, gaudy trench coat that looks too expensive to be his own, and he’s still sitting there every evening when Harry trudges home again, being towed sharply past by his Aunt Petunia. They never linger, never talk, and yet Harry feels a strange connection to this sad man.

One evening, Harry has to stay behind at school for a detention – no matter how hard he’d tried to explain, he couldn’t seem to make his teachers believe that he had just disappeared from the classroom when they wouldn’t let him leave to go to the toilet – and Aunt Petunia doesn’t appear at the school gates once it’s finished, so he walks home by himself. And the man is still there. He looks up as Harry passes and almost seems to jump when he realises who it is.

“You!” he exclaims. Harry stops and turns, nervous. “Where’s your aunt?”

Harry doesn’t ask how he knows she’s his aunt. Aunt Petunia is the kind of woman who likes to distance herself from Harry as much as physically possible, and so will loudly tell anyone who passes that he is not her son. “I had detention. She walked home with Dudley.”

The man looks almost awe-struck. “Is she allowed to do that?” he wonders.

Harry shrugs. He’s not entirely sure that she is. “She does.”

“Can I …” the man hesitates, clearly unsure if he’s going too far. “Do you want to sit for a while?” he eventually asks. Harry is astounded by how well-spoken the man is, despite his haggard appearance. He’s clearly not as uneducated or destitute as his aunt would have him believe. “Play a game of Exploding Snap or something?”

Harry frowns. “Exploding Snap?” he echoes. “What’s that?”

The man shakes his head. “Nevermind,” he says. “Do you want me to walk you home? I’ll buy you an ice cream on the way?”

Ice cream sounds good, Harry muses. It’s a hot day, just before school ends for the summer, and his dark uniform doesn’t make him any cooler. This man doesn’t seem particularly trustworthy, but then again he can’t be much worse than Aunt Petunia. They’re in a public place too, and he reasons if this man tries to kidnap him or something, there’ll be plenty of witnesses.

“Okay,” Harry shrugs.

The man’s grin almost splits his face in half, it’s that big. He climbs to his feet, and gestures for Harry to walk on. “Shall we?”

Harry nods and leads the way further into town. The man walks in silence for a while, staring at the cars and houses around him and saying nothing for a very long time. Then, as they approach the town centre, he seems to gain the courage.

“What’s your name?” he asks.

“Harry,” Harry says, not seeing any harm in it. “Harry Potter.”

The man’s smile gets bigger. “My name’s Sirius,” he offers.

“Do you … do you …?” Harry doesn’t want to ask, in case it’s rude, but he’s curious as to where the man actually lives.

“I’m not homeless,” the man says, guessing what he’s trying to dance around. “I just don’t like my house. My mother drives me mental.”

“So you sit on the street all day?”

Sirius shrugs. “I enjoy people-watching.”

As they walk into town, they continue talking. Harry tells him about how annoying Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon are, and Sirius tells him a bit about his mother. They both continue complaining, even as Sirius buys them both an ice cream from a nearby vendor, and then as they walk back up through town. They settle on the park near Harry’s house, and eat the ice creams on the swings as they continue to talk.

Eventually, as the sun’s just about to disappear, Sirius says, “You should probably be getting home. Your aunt might be worried.”

Harry scrunches his face, thinking that she probably won’t, but nods all the same. It is getting late, after all.

“If you ever need anyone to talk to, Harry,” Sirius calls out as Harry begins walking home. “I’ll be on the corner of that street.”

Harry nods, waves and leaves Sirius sat on the swing. His Aunt Petunia barely even notices when he comes inside, just ushers him to bed straight away. Harry lays awake for a while that night, staring at the calendar on his wall, and wishes for the summer holidays to hurry up.

Sirius is still sat on the corner every morning and every evening, just like before, except this time, Harry and him exchange knowing smiles every time they pass. On days when Harry has to stay behind at school, Sirius will walk him home, buy him an ice cream or a chocolate bar, and then they’ll sit on the park and wait until Harry absolutely has to go home. He enjoys talking to Sirius, who is much less serious than his aunt and uncle, and seems to understand Harry on a completely different level. Despite his eccentric coat and strange hair, he is entirely normal, and listens without complaint when Harry tells him about all the odd things he can do, like climbing onto roofs without realising it, or growing his hair back when Aunt Petunia cuts it the way he hates.

“That sounds like me,” Sirius says honestly. “My mother sounds like she’d get along with your Aunt. I could do all sorts of odd things when I was your age – it’s just part of growing up.”

“Can you still do them?” Harry wonders.

Sirius’ dark eyes seem to twinkle. “Sometimes.”

One day, as Harry walks dejectedly home from another detention, he notices that Sirius is not alone. He’s arguing with another man on the street corner. The other man is just as haggard-looking as Sirius, with scars criss-crossing his face and a mop of pale hair.

“-where you’ve been coming all this time? I thought you were at Diagon Alley or The Three Broomsticks! Dumbledore said-“

“Dumbledore’s the one who put him with those _Muggles_ ,” Sirius says spitefully. Harry doesn’t know what the word ‘Muggles’ means, but he takes it from Sirius’ tone that it’s not a good thing. “He hates living with them!”

“What do you suggest?” the other man demands. “That he comes and lives with us? Sirius, you know we can’t-“

“We certainly can,” Sirius argues. Harry’s never seen him angry before. “Remus, they starve him. He has to walk on his own, and they barely notice him when he’s gone. He’s only ten!”

Harry has the sudden, oddest feeling that they’re arguing about him, which seems odd. The way they talk seems almost as though they know him, though Harry’s never seen the other man in his life.

“When he gets the letter for Hogwarts,” Remus says calmly. “Then we can tell him. And, if Dumbledore agrees, we can ask him to move with us. But not before then, Sirius, we can’t be the ones to tell him about all this.”

Harry’s confused, so he tries to walk past the two men without being noticed. But, just as he’s about to move out of sight, Sirius stops him.

“Harry!” he exclaims, and jogs to catch up with him. Remus groans, complaining, but follows him all the same.

Harry smiles. “Hello,” he says.

“Remus, meet Harry,” Sirius says proudly.

Remus blinks. He’s staring at Harry’s face, as though he can’t believe it exists. “Harry,” he says breathlessly. “Wow. I really – wow.” For some reason, he looks as though he’s about to cry.

“We can both walk you home if you want,” Sirius offers, nudging Remus in the side. “Right?”

Remus looks confused for a moment, like he’s not sure whether to say yes or no, but finally nods. “Of course. Of course we can. Er, Harry, it’s nice to meet you.”

Remus, Harry finds out, lives with Sirius in his old family house. “We went to high school together,” Sirius adds. “Along with – well, nevermind. How was your day, Harry?”

Harry tells him about how he was given detention, this time for trying to hit Dudley. “He was joking about my parents,” Harry says dismissively. “They died in a car crash when I was younger.”

“And he was joking about it?” Remus exclaims. He looks almost personally offended. “What an awful boy.”

Remus is just as pleasant as Sirius, if not more refined, quieter and more calm with his reactions. Together, they walk him to the park by his house, refusing to go any closer because they don’t want to alert Aunt Petunia to anything abnormal. But this time they don’t sit on the swings, and somehow Harry knows what they’re going to say before it’s said.

“Harry, you can’t see Sirius again,” Remus says simply. “I’m sorry, but … Sirius won’t be there any longer. We’re going to try and sort things out.”

Harry frowns. He knew it was coming, had to have been coming for some time now. Nothing nice ever really lasts in his life. “Will I ever see either of you again?” he asks, trying not to sound disappointed.

Sirius looks pleadingly at Remus, who closes his eyes briefly. When he looks back at Harry, he nods. “You’ll see us soon. When’s your birthday?”

“July,” Harry says. “Why?”

Remus smiles sadly at him. “You’ll see. Now go home. You’ll see us soon.”

Harry nods, takes one last look at the two odd men stood in the park, and then turns his back on them for the last time. The next day, despite the warning, he still looks for Sirius – but he isn’t there. He lags behind at school again, and walks himself the long way Sirius would have taken him, lingering on the swings in the park so that he doesn’t have to go inside too soon. All that’s waiting for him is a family who hates him.

When Harry does eventually move, it’s dark and he knows he’s waited too long to go inside. Aunt Petunia will have noticed, and will not be happy with him. As he stands and walks away from the swing, he looks back briefly and sees a large, shaggy, dark dog lingering by the swings. Something about it seems odd, and they both stare at each other for a moment.

Then Harry blinks and it’s gone.


End file.
